Surface mount circuit board technology provides a number of advantages over older, so called "through-hole" circuit board technology. Such advantages include higher electronic component density, lower costs, and ease of manufacturing. While, surface mount circuit boards provide some advantages, some challenges still remain.
Some electronic components, such as high power transistors, high power devices, and the like benefit from some sort of heat sink to ensure proper intended operation. Even operation of lower power devices may benefit somewhat from use in conjunction with heat sinks. Through-hole circuit boards easily accommodate mounting of separate massive aluminum heat sinks on the circuit boards. However, it is much more difficult to mount such massive aluminum heat sinks on surface mount circuit boards.
Additionally, because of the higher component density employed in surface mount circuit boards, there is less space available for separate heat sinks. Such circuit boards devote a significant amount of space to a large number of surface mount solder pads. The solder pads, typically made of copper or gold, are used for soldering to leads of the electronic components, and are interconnected by conductive circuit traces.
In much of the prior art, surface mount solder pads are made as small as possible, so as to provide for the higher component density. As a general matter, in such cases the solder pads are often no larger than necessary for the soldering.
What is needed is a surface mount solder pad that is adapted to function as a heat sink for an electronic component soldered to the pad.